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HUNDREDS of car enthusiasts yesterday honoured the life of a Bendigo teenager who died tragically in a horror crash earlier this year.
About 400 cars rolled into the Bendigo Stadium car park just after 3pm yesterday as part of Cruise for Kirra Sim.
The fund-raising cruise travelled from Cranbourne to Bendigo with all proceeds from the event, to go to Kirra’s family.
Kirra Rose Sim, 19, died in September when her car and a truck collided on Hermitage Road, Marong. In an obituary published by the Bendigo Advertiser, Kirra’s family remembered her as a bright, bubbly and caring girl with a passion for cars.
Kirra’s mum, Simone Anstee, yesterday described the support for the cruise as “absolutely amazing”.
“It’s been overwhelming,” she said. “We’re so appreciative of all the love and support that’s been shown for our beautiful Kirra Rose. Today is very emotional.
“We know she’ll be watching.”
Kirra’s friends and family wore purple shirts sporting Kirra’s car number plate – TTEEZN.
Cruise participants strolled around checking out each others rigs before releasing purple, orange and silver balloons in Kirra’s memory.
Cruise organisers walked around the stadium car park selling showbags and tin-rattling, with money from the event to be used to cover the cost of Kirra’s funeral.
Kirra’s boyfriend, Matt Davis, said it was great to see so many people digging into their pockets and chipping in.
“It’s good to see so much support by everyone,” he said. “The response to the cruise has been unbelievable. She would have been ecstatic.”
Kirra’s brother, Trent, was lucky to be able to make it to the event after chopping off his middle finger while fiddling with his car on Friday afternoon.
He was released from hospital in Melbourne yesterday morning, just in time for the event.
“I was trying to fix the car so that it didn’t overheat today,” he said.
“I was lucky I had some good friends who did an all nighter on Saturday to get it ready.
“Kirra would have been rapt with the event. “She’d be pretty smitten.
“She was a rev head at heart – loved done-up cars but drove like a granny. She was really good like that.”
Organisers of the event were unsure yesterday how much money was raised from the cruise.